Charles Hodge – Theology for the Market Place
I was introduced to Charles Hodge for the first time in a seminary course on Romans where his commentary was the textbook. I can still remember my professor holding up his well-worn copy and exhorting us to read every word devotionally. My copy has become well-worn in its own right and still challenges and blesses me with each new reading. I encountered Hodge again in Systematic Theology through the assigned reading from his massive three volume Systematic Theology. Later, as a professor I looked to Hodge for help in teaching the Corinthian Epistles, and as a pastor preaching through Ephesians, I found great benefit in his commentary on Ephesians. My exposure to Hodge left me impressed with his prowess as a theologian; but perhaps more importantly, I was impressed with the devotional flavor of much of his writing. I knew the basic facts of Hodge’s life and his ministry at Princeton but I was relatively uninformed as to the depth of his life and the breadth of his influence on American society in the mid 1800’s. I gained new appreciation for Hodge when I picked up a copy of a new work on his life published by Eerdmans in 2002 and entitled Charles Hodge Revisited: A Critical Appraisal of His Life and Work. Initially I had no intention of reviewing this work on Hodge. Written by recent scholars and theologians (many of them connected to Princeton), the contributors by no means embrace Hodge’s conservative theology. In my opinion, a much better introduction to Hodge is the only complete biography of his life written by his son, Archibald Alexander, in 1880 entitled Life of Charles Hodge. However, with each passing chapter of this recent work I became more deeply impacted by the power of Hodge’s life and the lasting influence of his theology beyond his lifetime. While distancing themselves from certain aspects of Hodge’s theology and attempting in places to re-cast Hodge in more moderate and less militant terms, none-the-less the contributors all concede the significance of Hodge and recognize that he believed his theology was to be deeply practical for every area of both private life and in society as a whole. One of the contributors observed,
Hodge the professional theologian, the theologian that tackled just about every big issue of nineteenth-century theology, was, in both history books and theological polemics, pushed into the tight boundaries of the Darwinian and infallibility debates. When viewed in the broader context . . ., however, Hodge exemplified the nascent ideal of the professional theologian as an incisive and broad-ranging thinker, able to comment on any question of theology that might arise.
Charles Hodge was born on December 28, 1797 in Philadelphia and died 80 years later in 1878. His father fought in the Revolutionary War and witnessed the birth of a new nation – “One Nation under God.” His son saw that union tested and almost destroyed by the ravages of the Civil War. His father fought for political freedom and Charles devoted his life to the battle for spiritual freedom; a freedom he believed was to be found in the theology he espoused, taught, and lived out in his personal life. Charles was only 7 months old when his father died and he felt this loss deeply for the rest of his life. After graduating from Princeton college he enrolled in Princeton seminary in 1816 and graduated with honors in 1819. During his years as a young seminarian, he found a father figure in the new seminary’s first professor, Archibald Alexander. So close was their friendship that Charles named his first son after his mentor. In 1822 he married Sarah Bache, the great grand daughter of Benjamin Franklin and together, they raised eight children. Sarah died in 1849 and Hodge remarried three years later. He retired in 1877 after more than 50 years of teaching and writing at Princeton and died the following year. He wrote three full commentaries on New Testament books, a three-volume Systematic Theology, and countless other works and articles during the course of his writing ministry. Furthermore, he trained more than 3000 seminarians during his 50 year teaching ministry. His influence extended well beyond Princeton’s classrooms. His views on politics, social issues of the day such as slavery and the Civil war, influenced thinking people in every sector of society and across the nation. His theological legacy at Princeton was passed to his son, A. A. Hodge, then to Benjamin Warfield, and finally J. Greshem Machen. However none of them had Hodge’s profound an influence on the issues of the day or those of generations yet to come.
The exposure of Hodge’s broad influence is the strength of this book. After a brief biographical sketch, the reader is introduced to Hodge as he interacts with the scientific issues of his day (the introduction of Darwinism); the growing influence of German theological liberalism; with theologians of the New School of Divinity; his views on women and society; his views on politics and slavery and his attempts to preserve unity in his denomination while the nation was divided by the War between the States; his views on the authority, inspiration, and inerrancy of Scripture; and his commitment to a theology that must be lived out in piety of life. There is a massive bibliography of almost all of Hodge’s significant literary contributions at the end of this work.
That the authors hold a different theological position than Hodge will be immediately obvious. However, a careful and discerning reader will gain much appreciation for the life and ministry of this great theologian of yesteryear.
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